Genealogy Chat

Not just who they were but what they were. I get far more pleasure in seeing a little glimpse into the life of an ancestor than I get out of finding a new one.

I agree Grampa, I really get pleasure in trying to discover how they lived and worked and what life was like for them, which unfortunately for most of mine was a hard life down the mines.

Absolutely. I like to unravel a person as much as possible - I wonder what they looked like, how they spoke, all of it really! I started this 'hobby' (compulsion to find skeletons) just over a year ago and I'm now patiently (ahem!) waiting for the death certificate of the first person I needed to find to get going.... if you see what I mean. The other 200 souls I've added along the way are, in the main, just the add ons.

Oh yes, Grampa. I know that my gt X 3 grandfather Robert had to move because the ceiling of his house fell in, and that he paid 6 guineas a year rent and kept 2 or 3 pigs. [1819 settlement dispute statement, Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, Aylesbury] I know that my great uncle Sam, a sgt in the Metropolitan police, earned £2.7s. per week, plus 4d for coal, 1s.6d for rent aid, special duty allowance of 7s. and war bonus 12s. plus 7s. and 6d for children's allowance (3 children @ 2/6d) [pension record at Kew] and I know lots of naughty secrets they wouldn't want me to divulge in a public forum!!!! nell

I also enjoy that aspect the most. One has got to me in particular, my 3Xg Uncle. He worked for the railways as a booking clerk in Whitchurch Hants, then Christchurch, then became Station Master in St Mary Down Devon, then it seems he and his wife parted, and he died in an asylum in Bodmin aged 56. He had already left home by 19, lodging with a family nearby, and he was never talked about, so little is known about him. The mystery is, when he died, he was buried on the same day, then five days later buried again with in his old village in Hampshire where the rest of the family are, then 4 years later, buried again in London when his wife died. He was buried with her even though they were estranged for years. I don't have his death cert yet, but that will hopefully unravel part of his story.

I am particularly fond of my Greens of Gawsworth (cos they were so easy to find, ha). They lived in the same farmhouse for at least 350 years, and a family called Green was also at the same farm in 1420! I have a photo of the farm, much modernised |I| suppose, but breath-takingly beautiful nevertheless. I spend a lot of time imagining their lives - they were dairy farmers and I can 'see' all the daughters working in the Dairy and all the lads doing jobs on the farm. I can 'see' Mum, in every generation, all red-faced and cross, having to cook huge meals foir her huge family and the farmworkers. I can 'see' the harvest suppers, which was when most of the girls got pregnant ( a higher than average instance of births in late May/early June, tee hee). I can see Mr Green, in every generation, being an important fish in a little pond, telling the Curate what to do and how to do it (oops, must be in the genes). I often wonder though, what they would say if they caught me peeping through the window. they would be so amazed that anyone was interested in their lives, some 2,3,4, hundred years after the event. Olde Crone (going to take my medicine now, lol)

l think that is the best thing about research l am lucky in that a part of my mums branch became mormon's in the 1800s and sailed to America and crossed the great plains. They even had a record book of family written in fancy handwriting which survived 70years in a garden shed. lt's now being lovingly looked after by a descendant. l was lucky enough to receive a copy of it as well as photo's of the ancestors who made that incredible journey. l never knew my grandparents, aunts,uncles or cousins on either side of my mum and dad so it was harder to start. l'm glad l did l now have lots of relatives on my mums side who have given me character insights into my mum's family and lots of photo's back to the 1800s and have found two on my dad's one from his mother and one from his dad. l also found my great aunt had been in the Seaman's Orphanage after the death of her father in 1898. l am going to view her records on tuesday. Another look into a very different life of some. l would wholeheartedly encourage anyone doing their family tree to investigate the life and times of their ancestor's. l am doing record books for my grandchildren including as much information as l can. Who knows one day they might be added to by them. Pam

Definitely know what you mean...when you get a tiny glimmer of information they transform from being just names and dates into real people. So far I've only managed to find enough details about one thread of my family to have any sort of picture (only been researching for about 5 months) but I have seen and held the bastardy bond & removal orders for my ggggGrandmother, including her deposition of how her circumstances arose. And on top of that I found that the pub where she worked and conceived her son (my gggGrandfather) is about 4 miles from me and one I walk past on a regular basis when out shopping. These are the snippets and insights that make this hobby so exciting and interesting for me, a chance to shed light on my ancestors that died long before I was born, and far more rewarding than just listing names and dates.

Just the other week as I had business in Petersfield, I drove out to Iping and Steadham just to stand in the villages where some of mine had lived. To try to get a feel for the area and how it would have been at various times. Seeing a house which would have been built during a known ancestor's lifetime and wondering whether his carpentry skills are still evident in the roof trusses. Looking at the fields, the woods and the streams and imagining having been a child playing there 200 years ago. Genealogy isn't just digging up dead people, it is digging up dead people and putting flesh back on their bones.

Hi, Grampa, I think that just knowing the bare bones is not enough, ie date of birth, marraige, death. I love to put flesh on the bones. My G-Grandfather, Henry James Butler started out as a labourer and ended up a Freemason, owning 13 pubs in the East End of London. How did he do this ? What drove him ? I have a photo of him, his wife and one of their daughters in the Piggot Arms, East India Dock Road in the late 1890's, I look at that with great fascination. Another of my rellies went from Perthshire to London, again why ? All these mysteries are what makes this so all engrossing. And the enormous satisfaction when you finally find someone you have been searching for for ages ! Better than chocolate ! Donna.

*On behalf of chocaholics everywhere reports Donna to abuse for suggesting that anything is better than chocolate*

Hi, Grampa, I have had some very strange looks when after trawling through micro fiche files for hours in a Records Office, I finally find the entry I was looking for. Pure heaven ! Donna.

Donna, I hope you don't do that yes, yes, yes, yeS, yES, YES thing.

Grampa, guilty as charged ! Sorry, Donna.